Voting is permitted using expired ID cards

As the nation gets ready for the votes on February 8, Additional Director General (ADG) Haroon Shinwari stated on Monday that the Election Management System (EMS) issues have been successfully resolved.

Shinwari gave assurances that the issues with EMS’s testing phase had been resolved during a press conference in Islamabad, enabling voters with expired ID cards to cast ballots.

He emphasized that voting rights would not be restricted for people whose IDs had expired.

According to Shinwari, all employees have received a directive that emphasizes the idea that voters who have ID cards that have expired should be able to cast ballots.

3,600 operators have received training, and 3,000 computers have been reserved for EMS in order to streamline the election process.

Through the use of a secret network, a special control room has been set up to oversee the elections and operate independently of the internet. Shinwari emphasized the installation of a cutting-edge system with unique monitoring features.

Additionally, a national phone number and email are available for filing complaints from all around the nation.

In addition to 32 regional monitoring control rooms supervising the voting process, control rooms have been established at the province level.

144 district monitoring teams are actively engaged in addressing issues. Shinwari declared the first-ever election monitoring platform launch—a WhatsApp complaint registration tool.

625 people have received letters since December 26. Of these, 252 candidates have been given show-cause notices, and 156 have been fined for breaking the code of conduct.

12,236 wall chalkings and hoardings have notably been removed, and candidates who seriously violate the code of conduct risk being disqualified.

ECP has revised procedures to prepare for polling

The ECP has completed all required preparations in the interim. Sources claim that rather than physically visiting the four provinces on election day, the chief election commissioner has chosen to supervise operations from the control room.

Even though the commission’s members are expected to represent all four provinces, the ECP had difficulties due to nomination papers, polling station appeals from higher courts, and revisions to election symbols.

This election will not make use of the result management system, in contrast to the last one. Instead, the EMS will be used, with three computers for result compilation available to the returning officer in each provincial constituency.

Four computers will be available to the national constituency returning officer, and each polling place will have a copy of Result Form 45 on display.

Presiding officers will transmit their Form 45 via EMS, which doesn’t require an internet connection to function, according to trustworthy sources.